Comprehensive Service Models – Building Better Programs

First Steps on the Road to Financial Well-Being: Final Report from the Evaluation of LISC’s Financial Opportunity Centers

FIS Intern — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 13:45:13 +0000

Anne Roder’s report from the Economic Mobility Corporation (EMC) on how Local Initiatives Support Corporations (LISCs) provide financial and technical support to community organizations operating Financial Opportunity Centers (FOCs). FOCs support low-income individuals and families with programs focused on employment assistance, financial counseling, and public benefits access. In this report, the EMC evaluates the effectiveness of the FOC model in five Chicago-area locations on participants two years after entry into FOC programs. Though measurements of FOC success seem inconclusive, EMC notes that establishing sound financial foundations is a long-term process and financial counseling and employment services can play an important role in helping low-income individuals. Here are some of the findings:

FOC participants face significant obstacles to financial security, including low educational attainment, high unemployment, poor credit histories, and few assets.
FOCs improved participant’s use of employment and financial services.
After two years, FOC participants did not have higher incomes that the comparison group.
FOC participants made strides towards building a healthy credit history, however there was no impact on prime credit scores after two years.
Improvements in employment and credit were highest among FOC participants who were highly engaged in financial and employment counseling.
Participant’s net worth was not significantly affected, however debt unrelated to asset accumulation was reduced.

First Steps on the Road to Financial Well-Being

Promoting Work in Public Housing: The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus

FIS Intern — Mon, 19 May 2014 21:03:49 +0000

Jobs-Plus is a multi-component employment initiative that was located in public housing developments to help residents work, earn more money, and improve their quality of life. The Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus, for short) sought to achieve these goals at selected public housing developments in six cities: Baltimore, Chattanooga, Dayton, Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Seattle. Jobs-Plus was conducted as a research demonstration project from 1998 to 2003 with sponsorship from a consortium of funders, led by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rockefeller Foundation. The program — which was targeted to all working-age, nondisabled residents of selected public housing developments and implemented by a collaboration of local organizations — had three main components: employment-related services, rent-based work incentives that allowed residents to keep more of their earnings, and activities to promote neighbor-to-neighbor support for work. This final report on MDRC’s evaluation of Jobs-Plus describes the program’s impacts, that is, the difference it made for residents in Jobs-Plus developments in comparison with residents living in similar developments who did not receive the program. (Summary from MDRC’s report linked below)

Promoting Work in Public Housing: The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus

When Five Years Is Not Enough: Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Families Nearing the TANF Time Limit in Ramsey County, Minnesota

Ife Floyd — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:45:49 +0000

Shortly before its first TANF families were expected to reach the 60-month lifetime limit on benefits, Ramsey County, Minnesota (St. Paul) implemented the Intensive Integrated Intervention (III) project in an effort to reduce the number of families that would reach that limit without employment or another source of economic support. Through vocational psychological testing, in-home functional needs assessments, and intensive case management services, the county discovered that many long-term TANF recipients face personal and family challenges that severely limit their employment prospects. While some were able to find employment and leave TANF with the help of the county, others were granted time limit extensions or transferred to the SSI program. This brief describes Ramsey County’s approach to identifying and addressing the needs of families nearing the time limit, what the county learned about the families’ circumstances, what they learned about implementing a flexible and individualized service approach, and what the county’s efforts imply with regard to meeting higher work participation rates. The brief is based on executive-style interviews with program staff, in-depth ethnographic interviews with 12 recipients nearing the time limit, review of published documents, and analysis of the assessment information collected by the county as a part of the III project.

Mathematica – When Five Years Is Not Enough: Identifying and Addressing the Needs of Families Nearing the TANF Time Limit in Ramsey County, Minnesota

The New Haven MOMS Partnership

Ife Floyd — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 18:09:46 +0000

The New Haven MOMS Partnership is a coalition led by mothers, community-based providers, local and state government, national partners and academic institutions committed to the vision and mission of maternal and child well-being. The MOMS Partnership not only focuses on helping mothers meet their basic needs, but also seeks to improve their mental health so that they can become better parents to their children and more active members of their community. Community ambassadors, neighborhood residents hired to work for the project, recruit participants and work with mental health counselors to deliver an 8-week cognitive behavioral therapy intervention. The project makes extensive use of incentives and has developed a cell phone app to keep mothers engaged in the project and with each other. The Partnership is in the process of adding an employment component and is building a mental health and employment services center that will be located in the neighborhood grocery store. The Partnership’s innovative strategies have led to high participation rates in the program.

CBPP webinar on the New Haven MOMS Partnership
Webinar Video
Webinar Slides

New Haven MOMS Partnership program website

Ramsey County’s Families Achieving Success Today Program

Ife Floyd — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:15:43 +0000

Ramsey County, through its Workforce Solutions Department, developed a new initiative called Families Achieving Success Today (FAST) with the express purpose of finding better paths to employment, and ultimately family and economic stability, for TANF recipients with disabilities and their families. FAST is a partnership of several agencies that provide mental health, vocational rehabilitation, community health care, and TANF employment services —co-located to improve access for families and streamline the delivery of services. A key component of FAST is the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment, which many studies have shown increases competitive employment among individuals with severe mental illness.

OPRE Report – The TANF/SSI Disability Transition Project: Innovative Strategies for Serving TANF Recipients with Disabilities

Crittenton Women’s Union’s Mobility Mentoring Services

Ife Floyd — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:44:24 +0000

CWU’s Mobility Mentoring® Services staff and programs promote economic independence among low-income women and their children by offering highly individualized basic skills training, education, and career guidance to homeless and stably housed low-income women and their families. Specially trained staff use CWU’s Bridge to Self-Sufficiency® and related tools to guide program participants through goal setting and self-assessment activities that determine clients’ optimal route to economic independence based on their unique circumstances. Program participants then set and attain personalized educational, financial and career-related goals that will lead them out of poverty. They also receive a range of services to help develop the internal assets and life skills that are essential to achieve self-sufficiency. This program provides a very well thought out theory of change that builds on what we have learned from brain science research about the importance of and how to develop executive function skills that serve as the foundation for achieving goals and being a successful adult.

Crittenton Women’s Union

Kentucky’s Targeted Assessment Program

Ife Floyd — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 19:09:56 +0000

Kentucky’s Targeted Assessment Program is an innovative model for assisting low-income women by placing human services professionals in public assistance and child welfare offices to provide support services and promote integrated service delivery. Through a participant-centered, strengths-based approach, TAP identifies and focuses on decreasing and eliminating individual participant and broad systemic barriers to self-sufficiency using comprehensive assessment, pretreatment services, motivational interviewing, intensive case management, service coordination, and persistent follow-up services. At every level, TAP initiates collaboration and sharing of expertise.

Helping Low-Income Mothers Overcome Multiple Barriers to Self-Sufficiency: Strategies and Implications for Human Services Professionals
Article available for purchase

University of Kentucky Targeted Assessment Program Summary

Kentucky’s Targeted Assessment Program Presentation